Abstract:
This study investigated the impact of head teachers‟ support in implementing the guidance and
Counseling programme (GCP) in schools for the hearing-impaired pupils in the counties of Nakuru, Nairobi, Kiambu and Machakos. These counties have a total population of 776 pupils, 90 teachers and 9 head teachers. Pupils in class six to eight who comprised 243 were selected for the study. This ex-post facto descriptive survey used self-administered questionnaires and interview guide for data collection. A pilot study preceded the main study to ascertain the reliability of the questionnaire items. Cronbach‟s Coefficient Alpha method was used to measure the internal consistency of items. The results yielded reliability co-efficient of 0.77, 0.70 and 0.71 for the pupils‟ questionnaire, teacher counselors‟ questionnaire and head teachers‟ questionnaire respectively. Descriptive statistics and chi-square test were used to analyse the data using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Findings revealed that the head teachers did not offer adequate support to the guidance and counseling programme and this coupled with challenges facing teacher counselors makes the guidance and counseling programme not to achieve the intended purposes. The study recommends that Head teachers provide required resources for the guidance and counseling programme to ensure full implementation and purpose to create awareness to teachers and parents with hearing impaired child on the importance of collaborating with them in ensuring overall development of the children through the guidance and counseling programme.
